The Multifaceted Regulation of SnRK2 Kinases.

SNF1-related kinases 2 (SnRK2s) are central regulators of plant responses to environmental cues simultaneously playing a pivotal role in the plant development and growth in favorable conditions. They are activated in response to osmotic stress and some of them also to abscisic acid (ABA), the latter being key in ABA signaling. The SnRK2s can be viewed as molecular switches between growth and stress response; therefore, their activity is tightly regulated; needed only for a short time to trigger the response, it has to be induced transiently and otherwise kept at a very low level. This implies a strict and multifaceted control of SnRK2s in plant cells. Despite emerging new information concerning the regulation of SnRK2s, especially those involved in ABA signaling, a lot remains to be uncovered, the regulation of SnRK2s in an ABA-independent manner being particularly understudied. Here, we present an overview of available data, discuss some controversial issues, and provide our perspective on SnRK2 regulation.

High pressure-assisted low-loading asymmetric organocatalytic conjugate addition of nitroalkanes to chalcones.

The application of high pressure (up to 9 kbar) allows for relatively fast (1-5 h) and highly enantioselective 1,4-addition of nitromethane and 2-nitropropane to chalcones at room temperature with substantial reduction of catalyst loading (0.2-1 mol% of cinchona alkaloid-based thioureas and squaramides). Various γ-nitroketones were obtained at 9 kbar with high yield and enantioselectivity (up to 98%), whereas in control experiments at atmospheric pressure usually only a small amount (<10%) of products were formed after 20 h.

Efficient and highly enantioselective construction of trifluoromethylated quaternary stereogenic centers via high-pressure mediated organocatalytic conjugate addition of nitromethane to ß,ß-disubstituted enones.

A very effective high-pressure-induced acceleration of asymmetric organocatalytic conjugate addition of nitromethane to sterically congested ß,ß-disubstituted ß-CF3 enones has been developed. A combination of pressure (8-10 kbar) and noncovalent catalysis with low-loading of chiral tertiary amine-thioureas (0.5-3 mol %) is shown to provide very efficient access to a wide range of γ-nitroketones containing trifluoromethylated all-carbon quaternary stereogenic centers in the ß-position (80-97%, 92-98% ee).